"New Years Evolution" - PATIENCE

Hi, this is John Fantasy, the pastor of Evolved Church, and this is the Evolved Church Podcast.

Thanks for tuning in.

We trust that this week's message is encouraging, full of hope, and Romans 12, uh, verse 2.

And I've chosen the Passion Translation for this kind of scripture text that we're gonna spend the next few weeks looking and how it applies to our lives.

Um, Romans chapter 12, verse 2.

Romans 12:2

I want to do something.

Uh, would you read out loud with me?

All right, here we go.

Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think.

This will be, this will empower you to discern God's will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.

We started last week by looking at a total reformation, a total transformation of how we think, about what it means to be confident.

And today we're gonna look at um what does it mean to submit our life to the power of God's Spirit, to a total reformation of what we think it means to be patient.

And I'm not gonna take a show of hands, but I would love to know from all of the how many how many married couples do we have here today out of curiosity?

Hands up if you're a married couple.

You know, I'd love to do like a poll with all of the wives, you know, just to inquire about how patient your husbands are.

And uh that could be fun, but I don't I don't want to throw anybody under the bus.

But I love that this translation says um it's a total reformation of how we think, not a partial reformation, not a piecemeal or even not a comfortable reformation, but a full, a complete, a total reformation of how we think.

I believe that this inward reformation and transformation will empower each one of us to discern God's will for us this year in a clearer way as we live out our beautiful lives.

And that's God's hope for us.

God wants us to know and recognize and lean in and hear and understand his voice, each one of us, personally, in a meaningful way.

And God doesn't leave us out to dry, doesn't leave us out hanging, doesn't leave us in the dark.

I believe, like a good father, he loves to instruct and even if it's just our next steps, lead us with clarity.

There is a fight going on for your soul, your mind, your will, and your emotions.

There's a fight, there's a war that we're engaged in.

And we have an enemy.

The mind is your battlefield.

Did somebody write a song called No, that was Love is a Battlefield, John Mayer.

But uh, your mind is the battlefield.

Maybe we should write a song called Mind is the Battlefield.

What do you think, Josh?

Should we do it?

Uh but we have an enemy, and here's the good thing: he's a one-trick pony.

Do you know that the the enemy of our soul only has one assault?

That's it.

He's got one tactic, one attack, and it's to mess with your thinking.

It's to mess with your thought life.

And so, this understanding that as followers of Jesus, if you believe in Jesus, or if you're here and you you're not quite sure what you believe yet, along the way you can learn the skill of recognizing a wrong thought and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform that thought.

That involves us, the Bible says, taking wrong thoughts captive, tearing them down.

And that's what I want to talk about today, because the enemy of our soul, he's gonna try and mess with your thought life.

And I would love to invite all of us together to commit to this new year's evolution, an evolution of how we think, how we transform our thought life, our mind, our will, our emotions, how we submit that to Jesus, to God's Spirit at work in us, how we recognize when we're we have a thought that's that's wrong.

How do we replace that?

What do we replace a wrong thought with?

Just because we think something doesn't mean it's true.

We talked about that in our labels series back in September and October, that the enemy can introduce uh subtle ways of us to think something or believe something.

And we said we have to be on guard.

So today we're gonna look at the topic of patience.

And to begin with, um, I decided to consult the wise master sage known as urbandictionary.com to look up the definition of patience.

Now, if you're unfamiliar with urbandictionary.com, it is a humorous, satirical website that pretty much anybody can introduce a definition to any word that they want to, and it just goes out there for the world to read and laugh.

And so patience, as um we read in the urbandictionary.com, is the ability to stand without complaining, long periods of hardship, boredom, bad entertainment, being with your parents or other difficult individuals, being at a place that you would rather leave, patience, often classified as requirements for raising children, a relationship, learning in general, life, achieving anything, and conversation.

Right?

So that's that's Urban Dictionary's definition of patience.

I I loved that.

But if we look at the real dictionary, um, the definition of patience there that we commonly lean into is this ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay.

To have patience with um someone that you love when you're trying to leave the house.

Right?

That's well, I need to be more patient.

I need to be more patient.

We suppress our restlessness or annoyance when we're in the waiting.

This is often how we interpret I need to be more patient.

This is patience.

Um maybe you're going through something hard and you're you're you're waiting on God.

You're in the waiting.

You've you've put out a prayer for years and years and years, a request, a sincere heart hope, and you're in the waiting, and you're like, oh God, I'm trying not to be restless or annoyed here.

I'm just waiting.

Um and that that's often what we think about when it comes to patience.

But there is an alternate definition to patience, which I want to focus on today.

And it says this the quality of being patient, oh, that's rocket science, um, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, here's what it says, without complaint, without a loss of our temper, without irritation or the like.

Real patience, then, is how we wait.

It's how we wait while we're in the waiting.

I wonder if you're in the waiting today.

Because there's a huge difference between waiting and waiting patiently, a big difference.

And for me, you know, often I find in our home on a very regular basis, we're getting ready to leave and go somewhere.

And Nicole is she's dressed, she's got her shoes and coat on.

She might even be sitting in the car already, but I'm upstairs.

I'm still kind of, you know, taking my time, I'm getting dressed, doing my hair, doing my makeup, making, I don't wear makeup, making sure that, you know, that I'm put together.

And um, you know, she's she's in the car and she's just leaning on the horn, right?

She's and I can hear her in the garage.

She's like, come on, we're late, we gotta go already.

Um, is she waiting or is she waiting patiently?

Yeah, I'm working on it.

I'm working on my getting out of the house on time.

And um and I think I'm sleeping on the couch tonight, but um, it was worth it, it was worth it.

Because the difference between waiting and waiting patiently, it's our it's our attitude and our activity in the waiting.

It's how we behave and what we do and how we think and how we feel while we're waiting.

Throughout my life, there have been some significant seasons of waiting.

If I were to even just think through 2018, I've done a lot of reflecting in the last couple weeks about last year.

And I was saying to um our Uncle Brian the other day that I've never had 12 months fly by so quickly.

But coupled with that were significant seasons of feeling like we were just in a gap, in a crevice somewhere waiting.

Waiting patiently, at peace, that God is God, and I can't be God, but I can't see the outcome, I can't see the answer, and so we have to wait, and we have to wait patiently as we learn to trust God in these seasons of waiting.

There were months and months and months of waiting on God, resting in his perfect peace and learning how to be patient.

And the more I read the Bible, the more I realize that I'm in really good company.

If we read through the narrative and the story of and the history of what we call scripture or the Bible, um, there's so many stories where we read about legends of our faith who are accredited with being patient.

And what I love about these stories is when we read them, these human beings, while they're patiently waiting on God, messed up, messed up again, messed up some more, but they're still credited with being patient and waiting on God.

I think of Abraham, you know, how he waited on God to make him a father.

There was this promise that he was going to be the father of nations.

And he waited for years and years and years to conceive a child.

I look at Noah and how he waited on God to stop the rain.

God, I trusted you with ridicule and with excommunication.

I built this ridiculously huge boat.

I trusted you were on the boat.

I'm waiting for the rain to stop.

Joseph, how he waited on God to fulfill the dream that was in his heart.

From pride and arrogance with his brothers and his parents to the pit, to Potiphar's house, to prison, to the palace.

That's a lot of words that start with the letter P.

I should do a message series called From Pride to the Pit, to Potiphar, to Prison to the Palace.

But Joseph, hey, that's a good idea.

But Joseph waited and he waited to see this dream fulfilled, and it was fulfilled.

David waited on God to give him the throne.

He was anointed king.

But he waited on God.

He honored the king that was currently in place.

He waited on God.

Look at Ruth, how she waited on God to give her a man.

She waited on God for her Boaz, the entire nation of Israel, how they waited on God for the promised Messiah.

This list goes on and on and on and on.

We're in good company with our history of learning to trust God with seasons where we are in the waiting.

Waiting is quite simply a part of life.

It's a part of this life.

But it's hard.

Especially when the season of waiting is one of significance.

It's difficult.

When I was um out of high school, I was living in Vancouver, and long story short, I um I trusted God moving from Vancouver to Winnipeg.

And I had this like anticipation, this excitement.

I knew I was supposed to move to Winnipeg.

And only God could call a young man out of Vancouver and move him to Winnipeg.

Really, that's um either that or I was dropped as a child a lot.

But um, but I I trusted God with this move from Vancouver, where I had like a great church and amazing community, a network of friends, involvement.

I just felt fulfilled, really came alive in my relationship with God for the first time.

And then he asked me to move to Winnipeg.

And I did, and it was two years of just like being there, wrestling with that decision, not having clarity about why I was there, and just like struggling in the waiting.

God, I I know you, I know you beckoned me to come.

And then there was a season where I even moved back to Vancouver for a few months just because I'm like, this is this is lame.

I don't like Winnipeg.

Um, I have no sense of purpose here, I have no direction.

I feel like maybe God moved me here, but did I miss God?

And so I moved back to Vancouver and started to pick up the pieces of my life there, but there were no pieces left, and it was empty, and there was no fulfillment, and it was like what I had left behind had moved on without me.

And and in a time of prayer, I was like, okay, God, I'm gonna give you, I like like many stories in scripture, I'm gonna I'm gonna trust you, but I'm gonna like give you a time frame.

You gotta work with me, God.

I'm gonna give you a a year in Winnipeg to figure out my purpose there.

Do you know God was faithful and he honored that?

And after two years wrestling and just finally moving back there and beginning to put down roots in Winnipeg, it became clear to me why, my purpose.

What are you waiting for?

You know, it's the start of a brand new year.

We got new hopes and new dreams and new resolutions and new expectations and new goals.

But what about the other stuff?

What about the things you're still waiting on?

What about the goals you set in 2018 that were unfulfilled?

What about the hopes and the prayers that you prayed in in 2016 that you're still waiting on God?

What about 2012?

Those dreams unfulfilled?

What about 1998?

I don't know how far back it goes for you.

But some of you here today are in the waiting.

There's something there that you're still waiting for.

What hopes, what expectations, what dreams, what goals are still out there, and you're like, Where are you, God?

I'm waiting here.

Maybe it's a job, a new job to come through.

Maybe it's love, the right man or woman to come along, maybe it's a prayer to be answered.

Your desire to conceive a child or healing from a disease, forgiveness or restoration of a relationship.

Maybe it's a financial thing.

You're trusting God in the waiting for some kind of breakthrough or miracle.

Maybe it's a spiritual waiting, a deeper closeness with God, an understanding of who he is in your life.

Maybe it's a dream, unfulfilled, unseen.

Here's the thing: while you're in the waiting, while you're in the gap, while you're in the waiting, you're gonna start thinking things that are not true.

You're gonna have thoughts, thoughts of failure, thoughts of fear, thoughts of worry, thoughts of confusion, thoughts of doubt.

You're gonna have thoughts, and I'm gonna say they're gonna be wrong thoughts.

Thoughts that you need to recognize, take captive, tear down, and renew and allow the Holy Spirit to transform into the way of Jesus.

2 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3 to 6 says, This world is unprincipled.

2 Corinthians 10:3–6

It's dog eat dog out there.

The world doesn't fight fair, but we don't live or fight our battles that way.

We never have, we never will.

The tools of our trade aren't for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture.

We use our powerful God tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, and fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.

Our tools are ready and at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.

It's on us to learn how to fit every loose thought, every loose emotion, every loose impulse into the structure of life that Jesus shaped for us.

So today, as we look at what does it mean to allow the Holy Spirit to transform how we think about what it means to be patient?

For those of us here today that are in the waiting and that have wrestled with thoughts, that feel corrupt, that feel like they've been influenced by the world system, that feel broken or fearful or feel like I'm a failure, I'm defeated, how do we recognize those thoughts as being wrong?

And when we take them captive and tear them down, what do we replace them with?

And so I want to share three new thoughts with you today that you can put into your tool belt as a follower of Jesus.

That when you're in the waiting, when you're trusting God with something, when you're when that promise is coming, that that dream is coming, that hope is coming, and you're in the waiting, what thoughts should you be thinking?

Well, the first thought is this number one, I know that God is faithful.

Period.

When the enemy of your soul tries to convince you that God is unfaithful, that he's flighty, that he's inconsistent, that he doesn't have your best interest at mind, just remind him.

No, God is faithful.

God is faithful.

In Deuteronomy 7, verse 9, we read this know this, God, your God is God indeed, a God who you can depend on.

Deuteronomy 7:9

He keeps his covenant of loyal love with those who love him and observe his commandments for a thousand generations.

The God that we serve is loyal.

He keeps his covenant, he's faithful.

Psalm 36, 5 and 6 says this God's love is meteoric, his loyalty, astronomic, his purpose, titanic, his verdicts, oceanic.

We should make a rap about Psalm 36.

I think that'd be fun.

Yet, in God's largeness, in his oceanic, titanic, astronomic, meteoricness, nothing gets lost.

Not a man, not a woman, not a mouse, none of it slips through the cracks.

His loyalty towards you is astronomic.

God is faithful.

And so then, as we read this text, patience is actually about how we choose to depend on God in the waiting.

Patience, defined for us as a new thought, is how am I learning to depend on God and lean into the truth that God is faithful while I'm in the waiting.

When the enemy of your soul tries to convince you that God is unfaithful and that he's flighty and that he can't be trusted and that he's inconsistent, you remind the devil, actually, God is faithful.

Number two, the second thought is I know that God keeps his promises.

I know that God keeps his promises.

And that might even be difficult to say, because your prayer that you just knew and had peace was in line with God's perfect will for your life here on earth, and that God promised something, and you haven't seen it yet.

You're like, maybe God doesn't keep his promises.

That's a wrong thought.

You need to take it captive, you need to tear it down, and you need to renew it with a transformed thought that simply says this I know that God keeps his promises.

Even when I can't see it yet, God keeps his promises.

When the enemy of your soul tries to convince you that God's a liar and he's gonna let you down, just remind him that God keeps his promises.

In the story of Joshua in Joshua 21, verse 45, there's this truth in this text that works for us today, but it says there not one word failed from all of the good words that God spoke to the house of Israel.

Joshua 21:45

Everything came out right.

You know, that verse is a picture of God's nature and his character and his love for us.

And so it's easy and safe and right and true for me to say to you today, whatever God's spoken to you as a promise, good words that he spoke to you, everything's gonna come out right.

Everything's gonna come out right.

Why?

Because I know that God keeps his promises.

In Hebrews chapter 6, verse 12, it says, Don't drag your feet.

Hebrews 6:12

Be like those who stay the course with committed faith and then get everything promised to them.

I like the connection about staying the course, committed faith, and then see God's promise.

Maybe you haven't stayed the course.

Maybe your faith has dimmed or wavered in the season of waiting.

And I want to encourage you and remind you today, stay the course.

Don't drag your feet, don't get mired up in the waiting, but stay the course.

That same scripture in Hebrews 6, verse 12, in the Passion Translation, it reads this way so don't allow your hearts to grow dull or lose your enthusiasm, but follow the example of those who fully received what God has promised because of their strong faith and patient endurance.

Hebrews 6:12

Strong faith, patient endurance, stay the course, don't let my heart grow dull, don't lose my enthusiasm.

So, what does this speak to about learning what it means to be patient in the waiting?

Well, patience then is vitality and enthusiasm while we wait for what God has promised.

Don't grow dull, don't drag your feet, don't get caught up in the negative emotion of waiting.

Your season may feel long, your season may feel impossible, but I want to remind you God is faithful and God keeps his promises.

So when the enemy of your souls tries to convince you that God's a liar and he's gonna let you down, just remind that sneaky one trick pony that God keeps his promises.

And thought number three is this I know that God gives purpose in the waiting.

God gives us purpose in the waiting.

And this thought's particularly important.

Because when the wrong thoughts come, when the lies get introduced, we're in the waiting, and we're waiting.

Are we patient?

Are we victorious?

No, we're just we're just waiting.

And in the waiting, we begin to believe that I'm just waiting and I'm a lost cause or I have no hope or I have no purpose.

And the enemy of our soul wants to try and remind you and convince you that your life has no value.

And that's a wrong thought.

We need to take it captive.

We need to tear it down because when he tries to convince you that you're waiting, and while you're in the waiting, that your life's got no value and you don't have what it takes and you're not good enough.

Just remind him that God gives us purpose in the waiting.

1 Corinthians 15 says, with all this going for us, my dear friends, stand your ground and don't hold back.

Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or a waste of effort.

As we throw ourselves wholeheartedly into the work of following Jesus and the diligent pursuit of what it means to walk in love with God and walk in love with others, and be a be a messenger of hope in dark places, be a messenger of encouragement.

Don't ever think that because you're going through something, that you're disqualified from being used by God.

Because God gives us purpose in the waiting.

And there's this ideal, this false ideal in the Christian community that I have to be something in order to be something.

And that's not the message of Jesus.

The beauty of following and trusting Jesus and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform a total reformation of how we think is to rest in the now, to rest in this day and in this moment.

Even if we're going through something that feels impossible or difficult or extremely hard, learning to trust and follow Jesus says, God, you give me purpose here and now.

Even though I'm waiting, you give me purpose.

Listen to what it says in Romans 5, verses 3 and 5.

Romans 5:3

There's more to come.

We continue to shout out our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles.

We do?

Yeah, well, we should.

Continue to shout out your praise even when you're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop a passionate patience in us.

And that passionate patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue in our hearts, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.

In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged.

Quite the contrary, we can't round up enough containers to hold everything that God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit.

Notice the context here is when we're hemmed in with troubles, when we're in the waiting, when we're in the gap, in our right now.

God wants us to remember, to turn our shouts of praise up towards Him, to remember that our life has purpose.

And in that, this passionate patience develops virtue and perseverance in us.

So much, in fact, that we're never left feeling shortchanged.

So the renewed thought here is simply that patience is purpose with a joyful confidence while we walk through times of waiting, while we walk through times of trouble.

When the enemy of your souls tries to convince you that because you're waiting, your life has no value, you don't have what it takes.

Just remind him that God actually gives me purpose right here in the waiting.

To recap, God is faithful, God keeps his promises, God gives us purpose in the waiting.

And so patience for us as a ref a renewed truth today is that patience is how we choose to depend on God in our waiting.

And patience is vitality and enthusiasm while we wait for what God has promised.

And patience is purpose with a joyful confidence while we walk through times of trouble.

In Jesus' name.

Thanks so much for listening.

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